In Germany they do not have County government. Things like parks and sanitation would be handled by municipalities but larger issues like incarceration and courts would be state issues.

Right now the counties fight with the state because of unfunded state mandates. County government is the perfect political scapegoat and they allow state politicians to not take responsibility for their tax raising issues. Mandates like the court system continue to consume larger portions of local budgets as local pols struggle with levy limits and state pols pass tougher laws that require more money from the locals.

Eliminating county government eliminates the scapegoating.

Yep, just what we need, to make it more difficult for you and I to exert control over our local governance by moving those decisions to Madison.

I find it interesting that the lunatic fringe on the right is critical of my idea to merge counties to save costs. If anything, I think the idea of simply merging counties is a little too tame. Eliminate them all together and then we’re talking some real savings and an inability for State Legislators to blame local government.

Milwaukee County was more than three times its present size in 1846, and residents of the western townships resented paying taxes for improvements in Milwaukee proper.

William Barstow, a Waukesha partisan (and future governor) offered a memorable statement of regional non-cooperation at the height of the debate: “We’re tired of paying tribute and playing second fiddle to that mudhole on the lake.”